Cover Graphics

Portrait of the Third Generation Utagawa Toyokuni
Ichimura Uzaemon XIII's Benten Kozo Kikunosuke (from the main collection)

Ichimura Uzaemon XIII's Benten Kozo Kikunosuke
Portrait of Utagawa Toyokuni III - Bunkyu 2 (1862) large color wood-block print

A portrait of Ichimura Uzaemon XIII (later Onoue Kikugoro V) as Benten Kozo in the first performance of "Aotozoshi hana no nishikie" at the Ichimuraza in Edo in the third month of Bunkyu 2. Benten Kozo, disguised in the clothing of a young lady of the warrior class, visited a kimono shop, Hamamatsuya, together with Nango Rikimaru who was disguised as a guardian samurai. Accused of theft by a shop clerk and wounded on the forehead, Benten Kozo then tried to use this as a reason to be paid off with 100 ryo of gold. However, his true identity as a man was uncovered by a black-hooded warrior who was on the scene. (In fact, that warrior was a member of Benten Kozo's clan, Nihonda Uzaemon) The sudden transformation of the character from a elegantly coiffed, delicate young maiden in a long sleeved kimono into the tattooed and defiant Benten Kozo is overflowing with the type of twisted eroticism of the Bakumatsu period. A famous line of dialogue "shiraza itte kikaseyashou" ("If you say you know, then I'll show you") comes from this scene.

Index

Let's Go to the Museum!

* It's Finally Done! The University Museum (Takeshi Setoguchi)

A Witness to History

A photographic introduction to items from the collection
Documents and Materials from Japanese Schools in Tientsin, China

Special Edition A Study of History that Transcends Boundaries - The Third Gender

The Skin of Masamori Hotta - Politics and Sexuality (Mikito Ujiie)
Cross dressing - The History of Cross-Gender Clothing (Nobuhiko Maruyama)
"Nekama" is the New Transgender - Is this the Phenomenon? (Yoshinori Sumimura)

Column

Eunuchs - A Domesticated Third Gender (Masaru Nishitani)
The Gender of "Doguu" (Clay Figurines) (Hiromi Shitara)

The 37th Rekihaku Colloquy

Working Toward a New Museum Of History (Kazuhiro Aiso and Toshio Fukuhara)

Rekihaku Research News (7th)

International Symposium
Cultural Exchange in East Asia - Confucianism and Folk Tales
(Masao Higa)

Introductions by the Author

"Hojutsu of Edo - A Tradition of Martial Arts" by Takehisa Udagawa
"Agricultural Lifestyle of the Bakumatsu Period" by Mitsumasa Yamamoto

[Rekihaku Kaleidoscope]

"Rekihaku Kaleidoscope" edited by the Editorial Board

From the Classroom to the Museum

Discovering History (Hiroo Mitsuhashi)

Rekihaku Chat (readers' page) July 20, 2001

Rekihaku News

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